Misdirect
by SneezySoul
Summary: Jack becomes sick, the guardians look for what made him so.


**After a few years of on-off writing, here it is: one of my first drabbles. I finished it.**

 **Now to go back to hiding from you guys.**

 **The title+summary are nothing pay no attention to them.**

 **[TW: sickness, vomiting, Jamie, swearing?]**

 **[For those of you who are picky on sickfics: this is just 'jack gets overheated n sick'.]**

 **[Sunsick** , **The Escape Attempts of Jack Frost, and a few other good fics inspired this. ilu guys.** ]

 **The first part was written like 3 years ago btw sorry if its off.**

* * *

So let's just say that Jack Frost does well in warmer weather - but only for a few hours at a time. He didn't really know his own weakness, since he hadn't had much trouble with it at all, but after that last battle with Pitch that took place near the equator, he was beginning to feel a little...weird.

Weird as in he couldn't breathe through his nose properly, and he was sneezing worse than Aster after he had gotten sprayed with some room spray during a playful scuffle with Nightlight last week.

It'd only gotten worse as time wore on, and he had a hard time playing baseball with Jamie today, along with many other things. That was hours ago.

Sure, the sneezing wasn't too bad, leaving only little snowflakes in the air instead of frosty the everloving snowman, but it hurt to sneeze, like a deep ache in his chest that left him trying to catch his breath at each forceful exhale. The oncoming mucus that oh-so-suddenly started to clog up his throat didn't help much either, and he wasn't sure what was happening. It made him feel nauseous.

Laying there in the sun wasn't helping much, either. Jamie had said it usually helped him whenever he felt this way, but it was obviously something different. Maybe. Maybe he was just a little impatient, and also a little sore and angry at the world; he was a little tired, too, to top it off, and he didn't want to sleep today - it was saturday! He should be fine and up throwing snowballs at the unsuspecting peoples of the world right now, not trying to choke to death with booger central.

Actually, believe it or not, that's exactly what didn't happen. At all. If anything, that was how Aster found him, laying the in the clover near some weird statue in the park, wheezing pitifully and confused beyond confusion.

Jack wasn't sure what was worse; being carried by someone like some kind of fine glass, being petted like some kind of furry animal, or the terrible, terrible brightness of the day that made him have a headache full-blast in less than two minutes of looking at it all.

He'll just settle for all of the above. His life sucks.

 **X**

"Oh no, what happened?" Toothiana flew closer to the rabbit, looking over the other he held with concern. Jack looked horrible...in fact, if she must say, he looked much like he was...

"Sick." Aster - Bunny - answered. "Found him dozing near a park in that town he likes so much." he shifts the younger in his hold, eliciting a tiny, pitiful wheeze of protest. Jack had a hand on his chest, grasping the front of his hoodie in pain to something they could only think of.

"What? Why didn't he come here?" she continues to ask, going to push back the hair out of his eyes, brushing her fingers soothingly across his cheek, before moving back and out of Aster's way, so the rabbit could move forward down the large hallway of North's workshop.

They had all been called for a meeting, obviously, but Jack never showed up. He must have felt completely awful, to have missed the aurora they had sent out earlier for him. He never missed a meeting, always racing to wherever they planed it on, and always there before even Sandy could race there. He'd probably feel even worse if anyone brought that up, though, so Toothiana would just be quiet about it.

Aster looks as if he could kill right now, really. His voice has that under-hinting tone he usually gets when he remembers something he shouldn't. He got like that while playing with Sophie that one time, or that other time he had broken down when they thought Katharine was going to die once Pitch had kidnaped her.

It's a kind of silent-but-there tone with him that makes her wonder if she also gets like that as well, when she remembers, too.

In fact, if she had to think about it all, they each had something hurtful happen to cause them to be here. North's parents had traded him as a babe for gold from bandits, Bunny's whole race had been murdered, Sandy crashed to earth, and her...her parents were burned alive, plus a few other things she didn't wish to name.

Why, even Katharine and Ombric had deep, dark things that made them the way they are. And even Nightlight, should he ever remember them.

It makes Toothiana wonder what Jack's memories hold, but then again he was so unbelievably happy...it was so hard for her to see him sick, let alone in some kind of emotional anguish over something so long ago that can't be fixed.

"Where's North?" Bunny asks.

"Last I saw he was giving the children a lecture about something other." - the children, being Katharine and her glowing friend, Nightlight. They had put something inside the eggnog that had changed North's teeth from white to green, and oh, the heart attack Toothiana nearly had, until they told her that it goes away when you brush your teeth.

It was kind of funny, seeing North look confusedly at everyone as they laughed aloud at his smile. Jack would have been proud, actually; he was the one who mentioned the idea at the last meeting to the other two. It was only about time they took him up on his ideas. The two were probably on their way back to Santoff Claussen about now, after having to wait a few hours for Jack to show, though, if they weren't back home already.

"Wh're goin?" Jack mumbles quietly, not even cracking open his eyes to look anywhere, just turning his head into Bunny's chest and, okay, if that isn't the most cutest thing ever, Toothiana had no clue what was.

"We're goin' to get ya some comfy clothes on, maybe some warm drink, and a good bottle of herbal medicine." the pooka responds, before rolling his eyes. "This is just like you; get yourself sick t' avoid a meeting. Pah."

They both knew it was a lie, but it was also bait, and one that had Jack releasing a wet, hoarse laugh. It leaves him breathless, and it wasn't even full-blown laughter, it was just a tiny little chuckle. He looked far more worse for wear, panting through his mouth quietly, eyebrows pinched together in pain.

"I'll - I'll go get the medicine!" Toothiana offers, flying off and down the hall; the guardians knew how to take care of someone who was wounded, and sick, and even had prepared somewhat for the occasion. They had a large room even dedicated for holding herbal teas and medicines in it, really, and she hoped that she wouldn't get lost in such a large place. North keeps building and building on to his home, always making it difficult for people to navigate after being gone for so long.

Her daughters mostly know all about Jack being sick, now, since she sent them a few telepathic words; her and her daughters had this weird magic, in where it was like a sort-of invisible chatroom, where you can just blabber on and on to whoever you wanted through it. It was nice, but sometimes she'd get this one daughter who would try to talk to her while she was busy. Oh well, what daughter didn't do that?*

Speaking of daughters...

"Baby tooth, can you please get north? I don't know where he put any of the spare clothes."

His head ached something fierce, the pain feeling as if his brain was being laid out by a hammer and knotted up like some kind of ugly, gross pasta. Brain pasta. He'd have to tell Jamie that one, later. The kid always said he wasn't squeamish, so it was Jack's pleasure to bring you: nasty mental images.

Okay, he probably won't tell Jamie, in fact, he probably won't even remember. He can't remember why Bunny was carrying him, nor could he remember most of the things being said save for a few choice words he could grab onto. It was weird, and he hated it very, very much.

Curse you, warmth, you horrible, cuddly, sadistic thing, you.

Also curse you, Pumpkin king, for choosing Colombia out of all the freakin' places to go to for a battle.

And maybe curse you, Bunny, for moving so much.

His head was spinning. Moving wasn't helping him out one bit.

"Hold on a good tick," Bunny says, annoyed. "who knew you were such a quiet mess of baby babble during a cold?"

Baby babble?

"Yeah." Bunny responds. "You've been going on and on about something, but I couldn't understand you. You were babbling."

Jack goes to crack open an eye to send a half-hearted glare up at the older, earning himself a smirk from the other.

"There's that lovely icey gaze o' yours." he says. "Never thought I'd see it today."

The rabbit is weird; why is he talking about ice again? It hurt to think.

"You don't have to listen to me, if you don't want to." the other's voice responds, quieter. Bunny must of had a heart after all, awe. How sweet. Maybe next the other could give him an egg or something. That would be nice.

"Not really. Sugar won't help you right now."

"It'd 'elp." Jack manages to gasp out with a smile. He was having a little trouble understanding the other, and he must have been - babbling - as Bunny had called it, but he understood that pretty well enough to make fun.

"Which sounds better right now: to die of sugar rush, or to sleep?"

It took Jack a few minutes to grasp what was said, and he also had to mull it around in his mind for a minute, before deciding. "Can't I have half an egg, then?"

"Look at this full-on recovery you're makin', snowflake." Bunny chuckles. "A full sentence! I'm so impressed."

"Will I get t' egg now?"*

"No."

Sadly, all joking aside, Aster couldn't help but feel panic flutter in his heart when Jack had curled up into his arms once more to all but faint. He gave little to no indication of fainting, and had Aster not gone to ask him if he knew what was wrong or not, he would have never guessed the younger had gone limp.

Well, yes, he would normally had been able to tell with a person if they'd gone limp in his arms, but Jack was so lightweight the pooka, despite years of teaching himself about medicines and whatnot, had hardly even noticed.

It worried him a lot to see Jack in this state - terrified him, even. Jack was the most active of their little group of spirits, always bouncing from wall to wall in boredom and always dancing atop the thinner branches of trees just because he could. He was like a bird, really. One of those hyper-active finches you normally see in autumn, always fluttering about like the curious things they were. It was sad to see him this way.

"We'll fix you up, don't worry." he found himself whispering to the other. He finally enters the meeting room - a rather large seating area that could be easily mistaken for the globe room, had the globe near the windows been in working condition, and much larger.

The room was much like an over-glorified living room where there was a large L-shaped couch and a recliner sat near a fireplace. There was a flatscreen television above said fireplace, placed there at Jack's pestering, and some bookshelves at the other side of the room where no windows were located, but all in all it was pretty much the only room Aster could think of to bring Jack.

It was a bit sad to say, but he had no clue where North put any of the guest bedrooms - or even if he had any. Heck, he knew there was an infirmary, but he couldn't quite remember which hallway would lead him to it.

North had a sort of...organized tunnel system that wasn't entirely organized. Instead of like Aster's warren, it wasn't all 'kitchen, garden, bathroom, bedroom', it was a huge mixup of 'kitchen, kitchen, work room, work room, etc, etc'.

So until Toothiana could find old saint nick himself, Aster had to settle on just placing Jack on the couch and bundling him up in a blanket or two. Jack didn't really fight against leaving the arms of his furry companion, but he did send yet another half-hearted glare at the pooka for moving him so roughly.

"Yeah, yeah, grumpy." Aster says, smiling softly as Jack curls up on his side, head hooded by the blanket. A silly sight, really, but one that seemed to fit the situation quite well.

Rubbing a paw over an ear, he nervously shuffles his feet, unsure of what to do for the sick child. Looking around he didn't really see much that could help other than couch pillows. Sure, he'd grab the pillows and give them to Jack, but he didn't want Jack to sleep just yet. The ugly wheezing from the other had him more worried about keeping him awake until they found a solution.

Just as he contemplates waving down a yeti, Toothiana flutters into the room, several of her daughters zipping passed her to flitter around Jack, chirping at him in worry. The one Jack likes the most, 'baby tooth', going to perch haphazardly on his shoulder, nearly rolling off when another one of her sisters decides to land beside her.

"Oh! Thank goodness I found you!" Tooth says, nearly breathless. "I thought you'd be in the infirmary, but you weren't."

"We would be, but I can't find it." Aster replies. "Did we scare you?"

"No. Okay, yes." she admits, finally placing her feet on the floor, instead of using her wings. "Is he okay?" she asks softly, walking around the couch to get a closer look.

Still clutching his chest, wheezing. Not good. Maybe he ate something he wasn't supposed to? Did he fall and hurt a rib?

"M'kay." Jack answers her question. He doesn't look up at her, or move much from where he lay, but at least he was talking, and at that Toothiana gave a sigh, relieved.

She adjusts the blanket around him before running her hand a couple times through his hair, frowning as he smiles at her drunkenly, leaning into her touch. He was pretty touch-starved before, but he never did anything so...open. She giggles, before stopping and turning back to Bunny.

"Have you seen North?" she asks.

"I thought you went to get him?" Bunny asks, taking a seat next to Jack. "It doesn't seem that serious..." he adds.

Tooth takes a seat on the recliner, wringing her hand together in thought. "Baby tooth couldn't find him and the several others I sent to look couldn't either."

Bunny snorts. "It's December. The old coot is probably holed up in one of his offices. Or in the workshop."

She shrugs, lightly playing with one of her feathers. "I sent a few more of my girls, but they're not finding him."

"Did he go for a sleigh ride?"

"Not sure."

Bunny is just about to ask her to send some of her daughters to look, but right as he is about to, Phil, one of North's top yeti, walks in, rolling along a cart full of cleaning supplies. He stops to look at them in confusion, gesturing to them and to the clock.

"Can you show us to the infirmary?" Toothiana asks, ignoring the somewhat-obvious question the yeti had asked.

Bunny huffs. "I have to carry 'm again?" he asks jokingly.

Phil walks around the couch, and, at spotting the sick winter spirit, frowns. "Siht ekil neeb eh sah gnol woh?" he asks them, leaning down to get a better look. "Kcis eb tndluohs stirips retniw.."

"Mhm." Jack agrees with him, burying his face into his arms with a groan.

"Oh dear." Toothiana stands up, going over to Jack as well. "Sweet tooth?"

"Mm?" he peaks up at her through half-lidded eyes.

"Can Bunny carry you? -Or Phil? Can you walk?"

It takes Jack a minute, and Toothiana was really considering just letting someone take him to the infirmary anyway, but with a nod he gives his approval. "Okay."

She gives him a sympathetic look as Bunny carefully takes Jack back into his arms, blanket and all. Her daughters all try to perch wherever they could nearest to the sick guardian as Aster began to follow Phil.

The hallway Phil led them to dipped off into a stairway,which wasn't too difficult to get down, but for Aster stairs were something to be feared. Toothiana had to constantly tell him to go slower should he speed up, which was something the pooka hated. He had rather large feet, and they were meant for traversing earth, not stairs, as she kept on reminding him should he complain.

Now, that would have normally made Jack laugh out loud, because hey, big feet, but the winter spirit remained all but silent, pressing himself closer to Aster, dozing. Nothing but the trills of Toothiana's daughters, reminding Bunny to be careful.

Soon they were in to infirmary - which wasn't like a normal infirmary, with beds lining the walls. This infirmary was basically a large hallway-ish room filled with machines, with doors along the walls leading into smaller rooms. North had been meaning to make each patient's room separate for a while, and he must have done so a few years back.

Choosing a room, Phil opens it up to reveal a bed, and a few more machines - a heart monitor, and something else that looked a little too futuristic compared to the style of the room.

"Mih hctaw dna ereh yats," Phil says as Aster lays Jack onto the bed. "SalohciN teg ot gniog mI."

Toothiana nods. "Please hurry."

Phil nods, before rushing out of the room.

Bunny grabs a wooden chair from the small closet in the room and drags it to the side of the bed. He flops down onto it. "Don't be so worried, sheila, it's probably jus' a cold. Kids get 'em all the time."

"Bunny..." Toothiana sighs. "A cold? For a spirit? -A _winter_ spirit?"

"Alright that may have been bad observation." he admits sheepishly. "Perhaps another spirit is to blame?"

Tooth flutters beside Jack, ruffling his hair up before smoothing it back to the mess it was before. "Jack, honey, did someone make you sick? Did anything happen to make you sick?"

Jack mumbles incoherently in reply, wheezing out a giggle at something or other.

She lays her hand on his forehead. "He must have a fever; he's burning up."

Bunny frowns. "Jack, are you alright?" he nudges the younger.

"Noooo." Jack groans, suddenly coherent, shifting a little to the edge of the bed. "M'gon't be sick."

"Well heck." Bunny curses, standing up. He quickly runs to the closet he had gotten the chair from, cursing a few obscene curses in pookan that would put a sailor to shame as he had to quickly untangle a bucket from the few extra cords that were haphazardly shoved in the closet with it.

But unfortunately his efforts were in vain, as Jack spewed his lunch all over the floor. Thank the moon Aster had gotten the bucket in time, though, or more would be joining the mess.

Toothiana just rubs his back throughout it, cringing along with Bunny at the ugly sounds coming from the youngest guardian. Aster looks at the mess - it wasn't that big of a mess, but it, like all vomit, looked absolutely disgusting - and sighs, going back to the closet to look for something to clean it up with.

Although he did consider leaving it. Let North walk in on that, maybe slip? Ho ho ho indeed.

But he wasn't that kind of friend, or well, not that kind of friend today, plus the smell -and the sight of the mess- was disgusting. It'd suck if that smell got stuck in here just because he was too lazy to clean it.

"Gosh, kid, what'd you eat?" Bunny asks, grabbing a towel to wipe it up with.

"Don't make him talk." Toothiana says softly, shushing Jack as he cried. The poor kid. Being sick sucked a lot, and Aster could definitely relate.

Just as he finished cleaning the mess, and Jack's stomach had somewhat settled down, the door opens, and North barges in, followed closely behind by Phil.

"Is sick, no?" North asks.

Bunny sends a glare at the man, nodding his head to Jack, who then, by some weird sort of fate, decides to dry heave into the bucket Aster had given him. Toothiana frowns in worry, her daughters watching along the sidelines, unsure of how to help.

"How did he get sick? We are spirits! We don't get sick!" North says, before smiling sheepishly when Toothiana shushes him.

"I asked him, but he he couldn't really answer." Tooth answers, voice soft as she could make it, gesturing with one hand to the sick spirit.

Phil goes to place a hand on Jack's head, running his claws through Jack's hair. "Dlihc ,enicidem deen uoy od?"

"Ah! Medicine! -I will go grab something-" North starts, only to be interrupted by Bunny.

"-No way, mate! Jackie needs natural medicine, not that wishy-washy crap you keep!"

"Bah! Tis as natural as could be!" North huffs. "Why, pepto bismol will help him more than that dirt stuff!"

"That 'dirt stuff' is good for you, you old f-"

"Boys!" Toothiana shouts, drawing their attention. They both wince at the angry look across her face. "Tone it down!" she says, voice lowered this time, but threat evidently clear.

Jack, despite it all, wheezes a laugh, only to clutch his chest and groan once more. Phil rolls his eyes, patting Jack lightly on the back. "Aet emos barg tsuj." he mutters.

"Ginger tea? What about chamomile, or-" Aster asks, only to stop at the ugly look Phil sent him.

"Da, and I'll go grab some of my 'wishy-washy' medicine." North smiles.

"Don't get lost." Tooth tells them as they both walk out of the room, earning herself another wheeze in laughter. She smiles despite the noise; If Jack had enough energy to laugh, he had enough energy to get better, right? "Are you feeling better?" She asks.

"No." Jack croaks, voice hoarse. "A little. I dunno."

"Do you know how you got sick?" she helps him sit up, pushing the bucket away a bit. Phil, taking that as his cue, takes the bucket and walks out of the room to wash it out.

Jack shrugs slowly.

"Did you do anything before you got sick?"

"I...I played..with Jamie." he rasps. "Baseball? I dunno."

"Did you eat anything?" she feels his forehead again, tisking at how hot he felt, before rubbing the back of his neck; usually something she'd do for one of her girls when they ever got sick themselves. Jack wasn't one of her girls, of course, but Tooth couldn't help but feel motherly towards him, despite it all. She was sure Jack didn't mind her maternal affections, so she didn't feel too bad about it.

"Chocolate milk." Jack answers.

"You don't eat chocolate milk, but I can see why you got sick." she shudders. "So much sugar in such a small glass!"

"I had that...two days ago?" he shrugs again, rubbing his chest. "I dont eat much."

"Two days ago?" she says, shocked. "Jack, when was the last time you'd eaten?"

"Three days ago?"

"That's not a very healthy lifestyle!" she scolds. "What did you eat then? Candy?"

Jack shrinks under her gaze. "It was tasty."

"Jack!" she frowns. "Once you are done being sick I'm going to make you eat healthier! Sugar is not good for you!"

Just as she is about to go ranting on how sugar deteriorates the tooth enamel and rots your teeth, Phil comes back, a new bucket in hand, with Aster hopping in the room behind him.

Bunny looks them both over before offering a smile. "How you feelin', frosty?"

"Gross."

"Such description. Such eloquence." Aster feigns being amazed. "You should have been a writer!"

"Ugh no." Jack answers, hugging his stomach.

"Did you get a thermometer?" Toothiana asks, taking the bucket from Phil and placing it in front of where Jack sat, just in case.

"No?" Bunny frowns. "Is he still feverish?"

"I think so."

North walks into the room, then, with an armload of medicine bottles, each one clinking or clattering against each other like bells. "I have many medicines! -We'll have to choose the right one." the man says, winking at the grumpy look Aster sent him.

"I still think givin' him that muck will make it worse." the pooka huffs. "I couldn't find the tea, by the by. This place is a maze."

"It's not a maze." North replies, pulling a small cart over, to place the bottles on. "The kitchens are near the stables."

"And the stables are where, exactly?"

"On the bottom floor, down the second main hallway, right next to the paper workshop."

Bunny runs a paw down his face. "But where's the bottom floor- Where even is the second hall- Oh...Why do I bother?"

Toothiana ignores the two, though, turning her attention to Jack, who wiped the tears from his face with a sniffle. "Why don't you lay back down, sweet tooth?" she asks, rubbing his shoulder reassuringly, before looking over the medicines North had brought out.

They were mostly things you'd see in the store,and held many descriptions of what they work against. Unfortunately, she didn't really know all that was going on with Jack other than he had a fever and stomach problems.

"Do you know what's wrong with you?" She asks again, just as Jack curls back up, this time underneath the blanket. "Are you hurting anywhere, do you still feel like throwing up?"

"Uh huh." Jack answers, closing his eyes. "Mm'head hurts."

She reaches over to run her fingers through his hair again, something she remembers her own mother doing to her whenever she had gotten sick. It seems almost like yesterday, but she wasn't going to cry over it, not yet, not while Jack needed someone. "Do you think you can keep some medicine down?"

"Dunno." he peeks over the blanket at her. "Is'the yucky kind?" he asks, childishly, before smiling and chuckling at his answer. He was a child, that's true, but he liked to laugh at himself sometimes, thinking he was too mature for such things, or too old.

His chuckling calmed her worry down, and she finds herself smiling along. "Yes, it's the yucky kind. But it'll help." Or, so she and the other guardians hope. Jack seemed better after getting sick all over the floor, but Toothiana wasn't going to take chances and not give him medicine.

Aster smiles. "If you down some without complainin' I'll let you have an egg later." he bribes.

"Chocl'te?" Jack mumbles, blinking at the pooka as if he had just grown another head.

"Sugar-free." Toothiana stresses, her girls chirping away at how bad sugar can be.

"Ugh. Fine." the pooka grumbles.

 **X**

It didn't take very long for the medicine to work it's stuff, sending Jack off into a fitful sleep. Had Sandy been there, he'd have done that a while ago, but so far no one knew where the man had gone.

They all sat in silence, Toothiana at the edge of the bed, Bunny in the wooden chair he had pulled out before, and North in another chair from the hallway. Phil went out to see if he could find tea, soup, and crackers, just in case Jack woke up and happened to need them - which, in this case, he probably does.

"What do you think happened to him?" Bunny asks. "Like you said before, it's not a common thing for a spirit to get themselves sick like this."

Tooth shrugs. "He said he played baseball with Jamie, and that he hadn't eaten in a while, but that's not something to get sick from, I think."

"Hadn't eaten in a while?" North asks.

"He hasn't eaten in a few days. Jamie may have fed him something, but I'm not sure."

North hums. "Perhaps in the morning we should ask Jamie?"

Bunny nods. "That seems like our best bet." he sighs, leaning an elbow on the bed. "At least he's feelin' a bit better."

Baby tooth chirps happily at this, from her place beside Jack's head, patting him for a second when he huffed in his sleep.

Toothiana looks up just as North stands. "I'm going to hit hay." the Russian says, stretching a moment. "Get me if you need more medicine."

"Will do." Tooth nods. "I'll most likely have to put several of my girls up to the job of gathering teeth. I don't think I could work."

Bunny rolls his eyes. "Yeah. I'll probably just leave my googies to themselves. They know how to paint the basic stuff."

"Ah, you worry warts." North teases, straightening his coat. "He'll be better in no time. All worry is for nothing."

Tooth sighs. "I hope you're right."

 **X**

A tiny chirp had woke him up, surprisingly. He recognized the voice as baby tooth, but he really didn't feel like opening his eyes. A tiny little feathered being nuzzling his cheek had him squint them open, despite it all.

The fairy that had nudged him was the first fairy he'd met; He called her baby tooth, just because. He'd saved her a lot of times, and she'd saved him as well. They had a friendship built on saving each other from time to time, snuggling, and sharing little secrets they didn't want anyone else to hear.

She was his first true friend. So seeing her here now made him feel better about waking up.

As he went to move his hand, he stilled himself, realizing his whole arm had the little fairies perched there, asleep, or just waking up. It was rare to see them sleep, but when they did it was pretty cute. Kind of like watching kittens sleep, but...more birdy? More fairy-y?

His head still hurt, and he found himself squinting at the light - who even left the light on, anyway? - but it wasn't as bad as it had been before, where even the slightest noise would make his head hurt. Now, the pain was just a tiny thing, almost.

Of course, waking up with a headache is weird. Jamie told him once that people who drink too much alcohol have that problem, but Jack's never touched alcohol in his life, and so that ruled out any kind of weird alcohol-induced headaches.

Maybe it was because he was sick? His stomach still felt weird, but he was sure if he tried hard enough, the feeling would fade out or something.

Looking across the room, his smile grows even wider, despite it all, because there, sleeping in an old, worn wooden chair was Bunny, head tilted down, arms crossed, lightly snoring away. Oh, how he wished Jamie hadn't borrowed Jack's camera earlier

Unfortunately for the fairies perched on him, he wasn't really a person who liked to laze around all the time -or, well, most of the time, anyway. He slowly wiggles his arm, waking up the fairies, before sitting up -

-His world suddenly tilted, his stomach churned at the sudden vertigo. Thankfully the bucket from earlier was freshly washed and near enough for him to grab it, because he was sure he was going to grab it soon enough.

It was kind of like that feeling you get when you're just on the brink of sleep, where you feel as if you're rocking around in a ship out to sea. It was nauseating, and he had to fight to not succumb to the feeling.

He clears his throat carefully, "B...Bunny?" he tries, voice uncharacteristically quiet.

It was enough, as Bunny quickly sits up straighter with a look of alarm. "Huh - what?" he sputters, before seeing the pitiful state the winter spirit was in. He quickly hops over to the other, ears perked up in alarm.

"What's up?" he asks.

"Dizzy's all." Jack murmurs. He was going to say something else, but quickly shut his mouth, swallowing at the weird knot in his throat - he didn't want to throw up. Throwing up meant he'd hurt even more. Heck, he wasn't sure he'd be able to even do that, as he hadn't eaten anything after the last time.

Bunny, seeming to detect the other might be sick yet again, pushes the bucket closer, to where it sat in front of Jack. "I'll grab you some medicine, alright?" he says, before going to the other side of the room where, sat in a corner, was the cart full of medicine.

As Aster did that, the little fairies had all sat around Jack, all offering Jack small coos of comfort, or patting wherever they could as a 'get well soon'. He was glad they weren't really making him move or answer their questions; he didn't think he could. Not without feeling ten times worse.

What happened to feeling okay-ish a moment ago?

Jack frowns. "I hate being sick."

Aster doesn't turn around at this. "Not too pretty, is it?"

He doesn't get an answer,nor did he really expect one. He finally finds the medicine Tooth had given Jack earlier, and gives it to Jack, who just takes the bottle before giving it a sour look.

"Hey, it's either this or we use magic." Aster shrugs. "You remember what happened to North when we used magic for his cold."

Jack smirks at that, huffing out a short laugh.

Funny thing, really, is that North had gotten a cold a few months back and absolutely refused any medicine that tasted nasty, which was kind of dumb, but that was most of the medicine he had in stock at the time anyway, so he ended up taking nothing and being miserable.

And what does a miserable North do but play with magic? -Of course, Aster was around to help, since he knew some bits of magic that might help, but it pretty much turned into a mess anyway, despite his help.

North had been pretty adamant about finding a magic cure that would instantly make him better. Jack wasn't too sure what had happened magically, or why, but the spell North had cast turned the man's skin a light blue. Jack had snapped all kinds of pictures that day.

Unfortunately he had to hide said pictures super quick, as North had ordered a good portion of his Yeti to chase Jack down and 'destroy the evidence'. The chase led Jack straight to North's library, where he promptly shoved all the pictures in a book toward the back. He couldn't remember what book, or which section of the library, though. Oh well.

Bunny rubs a paw over an ear. "I'm not sure where the measuring cup is." he admits. "I think Tooth may have accidentally carried it with her when she left."

"She left?" Jack asks, glancing at the little fairies with him.

"These ladies didn't want to move." Aster says, taking the bottle back, to read the directions on it. "Tooth, North, and Sandy all left to find what made you sick." he goes back to the table of medicine and grabs another bottles' measuring cup. "How you feeling, still?" he asks as he pours some medicine into the little plastic cup.

Jack hums. "Like crap?" he answers, pulling at the sleeves of his hoodie. He still felt dizzy, but it wasn't too bad now that he had been sitting up for a little bit. He also felt like he'd upchuck, but it was kind of a feeling that'd died down so far. He blamed it on not eating anything in a while.

The pooka hands him the medicine, capping the bottle with his other hand. "How 'like crap' are we talking?" he asks with a smirk.

"You gonna do the baymax thing?" Jack says, taking a sniff at what Aster had handed him. He makes a face at the medicine yet again. That was not cherry, no matter how much they wanted him to believe it was.

"Baymax?" Aster blinks, his ears tilted at an odd angle - pookan for 'confused', if you were interested in knowing pookan expressions. "What is that?"

Jack snickers. "When the others come back we should watch a movie."

The other rolls his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Take the medicine."

After a few minutes of waiting for Jack to take the medicine, Aster sighs, gesturing with a paw to the little cup of medicine, hoping Jack would take it.

"Can I have something to go with it?" Jack cringes. "It's nasty."

Aster gives him a irritated look. "Like what?"

"Like maybe...I don't know...something sweet?"

"Tooth'd just about kill me."

Jack frowns. "Not even a drink?"

Bunny contemplates the request for a moment, before shrugging. "There's tea." he raises a paw at the other before Jack could protest. "Only tea. Tooth didn't want you getting even more sick if you were allergic to something, so we're going to keep it simple, alright?"

Without another word Aster turns to the door, but then turns back around to face Jack just as he was in the doorway. "You'll be fine on your own?"

"Mhm." Jack hums.

Aster arches an eyebrow at the reply, before pointing to the fairies, who'd sat themselves along the bed, as close to Jack as they could get. "Watch him." the pooka says. "Tell me if something's up."

The chorus of little chirps and trills answer him, as Aster then makes his way from the room.

Jack would have rolled his eyes had it not been the fact that he still felt like being sick. It was a little creeping sensation he didn't like, and had no idea what to do about, but he felt that if he moved too much, or looked a certain way, or smelled a certain thing, that he wouldn't be able to keep the gross feeling away.

Instead he just huffs. "M'bored." He mumbles, noting to himself how bland the room looked, with it's dull color scheme of light grey and yellow. The machines were cool, but they were turned off and bland-looking as well. Just looking at the walls made him feel bored, even if he wasn't entirely bored.

Baby tooth chirps, though he couldn't see her from where she was perched, he could practically hear the sarcasm in her reply. He couldn't really understand the fairies, but he was pretty sure that was her sassing him off.

Glancing slowly at the medicine in hand, he groans lightly; the smell of the medicine was tolerable a moment ago, but he suddenly found himself trying to swallow the sick feeling down again.

He slowly moves the medicine aside, one of the girls taking it from him gently. He goes to lay back down, shooting the bucket a small look, as if it had caused the problem. It, being a bucket, just sat there, being an inanimate object full of lies and slander.

Okay, perhaps the bucket didn't do anything, and he knew that, but just seeing it there, and knowing what it was for, while also knowing he couldn't avoid the gross feeling for long had him blaming the thing anyway. It was such a bland color, and it didn't make him feel any better. If anything, it just made him wish he had the strength to reach a foot out and kick it across the room.

Baby tooth makes her way to the front of his face, frowning in concern. She lifts a little hand up to pat his forehead, chirping in worry.

"I'm okay." he mumbles, eyebrows furrowing together in concentration; he was not going to toss his lunch - dinner - whatever it was in his stomach. Not today. Not this moment. No sir, nuh uh.

She shakes her head at him, leaning over to bop him in the nose. Her usual gesture for 'cheer up', or 'stop worrying'.

The corner of his mouth quirked up.

 **X**

They had reached Jamie's house a good thirty minutes ago, but upon knocking had found the boy gone. They would say it was due to being at church or at a friend's house, as it was Sunday, but for Jamie that seemed just a little unlikely. The boy usually tried to linger a day or so at home whenever Jack visited, just in case the winter spirit came back to finish a round of playing or for a revenge snowball attack.

Knocking and ringing the doorbell only seemed to anger his mother the more they tried it. They could try to go past her, but she only opens the door just enough for herself, so it seemed a little too hazardous to try and push it further.

Sandy had pointed up to Jamie's bedroom window, but after a few good tugs and a lot of sand trails, they found the window had been locked tight.

Which lead them to where they were now: Sitting on the front porch steps, Toothiana pacing back and forth, wringing her hands together fretfully, chewing her bottom lip and worrying like the mother she is.

North crosses his arms. "Can't believe child is gone today. Where could he be?"

Sandy, who until now hadn't really done much but antagonize the dog in the front yard with sandy pictures of rabbits and squeaky toys, shrugs, huffing out a sigh of sand particles.

The little man hadn't really seen Jack until a few minutes after the boy had went to sleep, curled up beneath a blanket, with Toothiana's fairies napping and taking turns watching over him on the top of said blanket. He didn't know how bad Jack had been beforehand, and had only gotten a very quick description, but he still knew it had to be just bad enough to have toothiana anxious and jumpy.

Plus, Aster had offered to stay behind in case Jack needed someone. The last time the pooka had offered something like that he had offered to make a traditional pookan pastry for Katharine, as she had been feeling down about not getting the recipe right.

That was ages ago.

But then again they hadn't really hung around each other until Jack became a guardian. Before that, the guardians all just did their own thing.

In fact, the four guardians had a meeting behind Jack's back just to discuss what will happen afterwards. They all agreed that maybe staying apart from each other wasn't the best thing.

Plus North threw in the 'Jack is a child' argument. That got them all thinking on a different level, and, in a way, reminded them that they had other children they'd been ignoring for a while, too. Sure, they've been doing their jobs, but everyone knows how a child will begin to feel ignored.

It would explain how Pitch got the upper hand, anyway; children may have a tiny belief in them all, but as they're hardly around to build that belief up, the children are left to themselves, really. Not that every child could be saved, but still...

"I hope he returns soon. A winter spirit being sick? Not good." Tooth says.

"What if the child knew nothing of it?" North suggests. "What then?"

Sandy taps his chin in thought as the fairy continues pacing back and forth, before summoning up his sand to answer. An owl and a goose; symbols he used for Ombric and Katharine. The old wizard knew many things about magic, and could probably figure out what went wrong, while Katharine had been helping mother nature in healing small sprites for years. Sprites were nothing close to what Jack was, but perhaps Katharine would still know what to do.

He frowns when no one makes a comment, looking to the others he finds himself being ignored. They were too much into their own thoughts and worries to pay any attention to him.

He sighs, resting his head on a fist. If worse came to worse, he'd fly out to find help, himself, whether the other guardians knew it or not.

A few more minutes in, and just as North stood up, did the patter of footsteps on a sidewalk cause them to look up.

Jamie opens the gate and has barely any time to say hello before Sophie, his younger sister, pushes her way over to the three, hugging North's leg and bouncing up and down in excitement.

Jamie rolls his eyes, pushing Abby away from him and quickly closing the gate so the hound wouldn't get out. He turns around with a smile. "Hey guys" - he then loses the smile, eyebrows furrowing at the impatient, and worried faces of the guardians - "what's wrong?" he asks quickly, rushing over to meet them.

Tooth takes to hovering in the air again, done with her pacing to instead flutter around the boy. "Jack is sick," she states right off the bat, "we came here to ask if you might know why."

Jamie frowns. "Jack? Sick?" he repeats. "That's weird."

North nods. "Yes, quite weird."

"I'm not really sure." Jamie answers honestly, shrugging. "We just played baseball until dinner."

"Nothing? You didn't feed him anything sugary, did you?" Tooth asks.

"No? - As I said, we just played baseball. We also looked around in Cupcake's garden, but not much more than that."

North picks up Sophie, and takes a thoughtful step back as the child patted his beard in admiration. "Perhaps he's allergic to plants? What was in the garden? Can Cupcake give us a list?"

Jamie shook his head. "She's in Iowa visiting her aunt. There's no Internet there, either, and it'll take a few days for her to sneak me a letter."

"Bah!" North says, bouncing Sophie a bit, making her giggle. "We are guardians! We'll just go there, yes?"

"That's the big problem...-" Jamie flushes, looking down and shuffling his feet. Abby had taken to laying down beside him, giving up her previous plan to jump on the boy. "-I don't know where her aunt lives."

Tooth sighs. "Oh. Well...do you think she'd mind if we had a look, then? We can try to recognize what she planted."

"I don't think so?" Jamie answers. "But...I think she had her garden locked up? -It's a greenhouse, you know. And the only one who has the key to it is her cousin, Mason, and he only shows up late at night."

North frowns. "Why so late?"

"Couldn't you ask him to borrow it?" Tooth asks.

Jamie shrugs. "I don't know. He's cool; says there's monsters in the forest and stuff. He said that I could join him someday in looking for them, though!" he grins wide at this. "Maybe - maybe if I can get mom to let me tonight, you can get the key from him, or wait for him to open the greenhouse?"

"Would she?" Tooth rubs at her arm, looking back to the house. "She never did let you go anywhere too late."

Partly because it had been a few years since the guardians last saw him. Jack was the only one who ever really visited the boy and his sister. Tooth wouldn't remember how old the boy was.

"I'm twelve. I'm old enough." Jamie replies. "And she likes Mason! - He does chores and stuff for her when we're on vacation!"

She nods. "That sounds like a wonderful idea but..."

"We're still worried about Jack." North finishes, smiling as Sophie tugs on his beard. "Want to help him as soon as possible."

"Oh." Jamie frowns.

Sandy waves his hands, attracting Jamie's attention, spelling out Mason's name with his sand and then making a building. 'Where does Mason work?'

"Mason lives in an apartment. It's too far away."

Sandy almost - almost - facepalmed when the boy mistook what he was trying to say, but decided not to, forming the symbols once more, pointing up at them with a smile.

"Oh! You mean 'where does he work'?" Jamie asks, smiling. "He works at the library in town! How did I not think of this? - I can just walk to the library and ask for the key!"

Toothiana claps her hands in excitement. "Way to go, Sandy!" North laughs, patting the little man on the head for his quick thinking.

Sandy blushes at the praise, ever happy to help.

 **X**

Aster only left for three minutes - only three. He told those girls to get him if something happened, but it must have gone ignored.

He rubs Jack's back as the boy heaved. This was a much, much too familiar scene by now, and he was sure the boy felt even worse than he sounded at this point.

The other guardians had left four hours ago. He wasn't sure when they'd come back, but he hoped that when they did they had some kind of solution. Jack had long since stopped crying and fighting it, and had been sitting on the edge of his bed, bucket between his legs for a good two hours. The girls flew back and forth with worry, Phil and another yeti had been coming in and out of the room, offering remedies and comfort.

Aster felt entirely useless compared to them. He'd only sat here. Doing nothing but rubbing circles in Jack's back and offering nothing. He had barely even said anything to Jack beyond a curse in pookan, and that was thirty minutes ago.

He could grind his teeth, but Jack probably wouldn't know that was a comforting sound. Heck, it'd been so long since Aster has done that, and he wasn't even sure if it'd be a nice sound anymore.

Placing the cold towel on the back of Jack's neck did help a little, though, so maybe he wasn't as useless as he felt.

The tea he had brought him was cold by now, and the medicines laid mostly untouched; the boy couldn't keep any of it in, and had given up on the idea.

Really, this was just Jack's body trying to get rid of whatever it was he had, but it was still worrying. Heck, everything about Jack had him sitting on the edge of his seat lately, ready to dive for another bowl of chilled water, or another bottle of medicine at a moment's notice.

With North, when the man had been sick, it wasn't as bad as this; just a little sniffle and a sore throat. It left the man enough freedom to use magic and check his lists and order his workers around, still, and he had been fine up until he tried looking for a cure.

And Aster was not going to go into magic for a cure. As funny as it'd be to see Jack in different colors or a different species altogether, he'd prefer it if the boy wasn't sick. Heck, he'd never do magic like that again unless it absolutely called for it, really.

Like maybe turning Nick's coat a nice bright pink. That seemed absolutely called for. Heck, maybe he could even teach Jack a little magic just for pranking Kris Kringle.

Phil enters again with an extra blanket, placing it on the chair before gently patting Jack on the head. "Gniod eh si woh?"

Bunny sighs. "Good as he was three minutes ago, mate. You know, when you asked me last."

Phil rolls his eyes. "deirrow tsuj er'ew..."

"Uh huh." Bunny flips the towel over on the other side, offering a smile when Jack tiredly peeks up at him. "How you going?" he asks.

Jack groans. "I dunno."

Bunny huffs. Jack's answer pretty much means 'terrible'. It's like Jack's language, and it only took Aster an hour to learn it.

"You want anything?"

"A planet." Jack says, voice hoarse and obviously irritated at being sick, glaring just passed the rim of the bucket.

"Ha, ha. Good luck on that one."

 **X**

Getting to the library had taken what seemed like forever. They ended up waiting a few more minutes before leaving, since Jamie had to tell his mother and she had told him to take Sophie and let her pick out a few books, which left Jamie scrambling to find his library card.

But now that they were here, finally, they started to worry - what if Jack wasn't allergic to a plant? What if it was something else?

Even the lazy atmosphere and the smell of old books didn't calm the two guardians down much.

Sophie had run off to her favorite section of books, leaving Jamie at the front desk to ask for Mason.

Mason, sadly, was in a back room organizing college textbooks. Jamie felt uneasy being in that part of the library, claiming that it was 'too cramped' and 'the future looks as dim as the lighting there does'.

They all sat by a table near the front desk, just close enough to see when Mason comes back, and far enough away that Mason wouldn't hear Jamie if he were to talk.

"He's a busy guy." Jamie says, rolling his eyes and grabbing out a random book to 'read'. "Cupcake says everyone likes him because he's a huge pushover."

"No backbone, eh? I could fix that." North grins.

"I don't think he'd be able to see you. He's like twenty."

"You said he hunts monsters, though?" Toothiana asks, drumming her fingers quietly on the table, glancing to the front desk.

"Looks for, not hunt." Jamie states, turning to a random page in his book and laying it on the table in front of him. "He wants to find the monsters and write about them."

"Oh." Tooth nods. "A very nice way to go about things; hunting monsters is dangerous."

"Unless it's not a monster boy finds, eh?" North says cheekily. "Could've been just Jack pulling Mason's leg."

"Nope!" Jamie smiles. "As funny as it could be, Jack told me there _were_ monsters in the forest! How cool is that?"

"What kind?" North asks.

Jamie crinkles up his nose in thought. "Jack said they were giant, gross-looking rat-dog things? He said they acted kind of like foxes, but they could stand on their hind legs all freaky-like when you get too close. He kept them away from the park and his lake though, and that's where Mason usually looks."

Toothiana frowns at the description. "I don't think you should go after those things...They sound...er."

"Yeah, I know." Jamie nods. "But I figured we could run back to the park if they chased us or something. Or shine a flashlight in their faces. Or...y'know...carry salt with us?"

"Salt?"

"They say it helps with demons and stuff." Jamie answers sheepishly, flipping a page of the book.

"-I didn't know you were into astrophysics, Jamie."

Jamie quickly looks up. "Hey, Mason!" He greets, glancing toward Tooth's direction for a second before getting up out of his chair.

"What'cha need? Cheryl said you wanted me?"

"Uh huh!" Jamie nods. "I left something in Cupcake's garden a few days ago and I need it back!"

"So you want the key?" Mason asks.

"Yep!"

"I don't have it."

Jamie's smile slips away at that. "What? - What do you mean you don't have it?"

Mason shrugs. "I'm horrible with plants, so I gave it to my sister."

"Oh no." Jamie says, looking toward one of the windows; it was almost night, and he had to be back home in the time it would take to find Mason's sister.

The older just gives a sympathetic look. "Aw, I can always get her to drop it off at your house later."

"But I needed it now." Jamie whines. It's important!"

Mason quirks up an eyebrow at this. "How important?"

"A lot of important!" Jamie is practically bouncing on his feet.

"Okayyy..." Mason trails off, hand raised up to his chin in thought, glancing to the window. "Okay, how about this; I show up to your house in about an hour and we jimmy the lock?"

"Isn't that illegal?" Tooth asks, just to go unheard when Jamie agrees excitedly.

"How? Do you have lockpicks? Can you use them?" Jamie asks, following the man as he walks behind the front desk, taking the spot the previous librarian had before.

"Nope! I have two amazing things: bolt cutter and determination!"

"Woah! We're really gonna break the lock?" - If Jamie wasn't impressed with Mason before, he certainly was now by how amazed he looked.

"Yep!" Mason nods, straightening some papers into a stack. "I don't even know why she has a lock; it's just plants. It should be easy to get into..." he pauses, furrowing his brows. "Just, uh, don't tell your mom, alright? I could get into trouble."

Jamie, grins. "Your secret's safe with me! Scout's honor!" He shouts, running to get his sister so they can go home.

"You're not even a scout!"

 **X**

Jack frowns as he watched Bunny pace the room. The spirit had went to lay on his side after the episode with the awful bucket. Man, that felt like it lasted forever. He did _not_ want to revisit that, but he was sure that if he watched Bunny pace for a couple more minutes he'd do just that.

Unfortunately he didn't feel like talking or - heck - even moving. He was so tired he felt like he could lay anywhere and sleep. His stomach grumbling kept him awake though, just in case. He was afraid of sleeping with that going on.

Bunny turns around once more to pace to the other side of the room, grumbling to himself. The other guardians were still out looking for whatever could have made Jack sick, and if he had a say, he'd say that the idea was stupid. He could have gotten sick from anything; being a winter spirit didn't change how awful being sick was.

Why, he'd been sick before. A few times, actually. That may have been around when he was still considered 'new' to the whole spirit thing, but those times still count, right?

Aster wouldn't listen to him when he brought up the subject, though, instead pacing the room just a little faster. It was almost like the guy was in his own little world.

Funny thing about when he was first sick is that he thought he was allergic to birds. The red ones particular. Boy, was he wrong. The second and third - heck, even the fourth - time he'd got sick went pretty much the same way; he always assumed he was allergic, or that he ate something funny.

But hey, could you blame him? He was new, and he didn't really have anyone to go to. He just...tried his best to live.

Even if it had meant being stupid and thinking he was allergic to birds.

Right as he thought this, the door opened up, and before Phil even had time to take a step into the room, Bunny turns sharply to him.

"Where the blimey 'ell are the others?" He snaps, baring his front teeth - Jack was sure the pooka was, anyway. Rabbits don't do that, but maybe pooka people do?

Phil gives him a glare for the attitude before deciding to drop it, shrugging in answer. He turns to the bed, walks up to it and hands Jack something.

Jack had trouble exactly lifting whatever it was, but once he got a good look at it, he grinned. It was a gameboy; Jamie had a yellow one underneath his pillow he plays when his mother sends him to bed. Jack had never played one before, but Jamie showed him his and it looked fun.

"Cool." He whispers, trying to figure out how to turn it on, his movements a little sloppy, but he managed to turn it on and play the little game Phil had in it. He didn't even have to sit up for it - an up in his book. "You're the bes' fluff ever." He slurs.

Phil runs a paw over Jack's head, ruffling his hair, before talking to Aster or something. Jack wouldn't know. Yeti language was only easy to get if you could see their face, and Jack couldn't focus that well right now, anyway. Even trying to see the little figures on the game was taxing.

Pushing himself carefully, he makes enough room for him to set the gameboy down and to let the fairies play. It took at least three fairies trying to cooperate with each other to get it, but they were having fun despite it all, and he found himself smiling at them. They were pretty good at it.

"Alright, Jackie."Bunny huffs, and Jack looks up to see the pooka standing next to the bed in front of him. "The others are still gone; you think you can remember anything that made you sick? Tooth asked you when you were a tad bit out of it earlier."

"I wasn' that out of it."

"You're right; you were horrendously out of it. I'm surprised you were even able to talk."

Jack huffs. "M'kay. Maybe 'm allergic to..." he takes a second to think about it - It's a dumb thing, thinking he was allergic, but it was, habitually, the first thing that came to mind. "Clover?" he guesses.

"I've never heard of such a thing." Bunny crosses his arms, lightly pushing Jack's legs aside to take a seat on the edge of the bed. "Any thing else you can think up? Anything you can remember from yesterday?"

"Well..." Jack furrows his brows in concentration. "It was hot out, I guess. I remember Jamie complainin' about it."

At this, Aster's eyes widen. "Hot! That's it! That could be it!" he stands up, pacing excitedly. If Jack was being just a bit honest he'd say that the pooka was practically skipping.

Bunny turns quickly to him, grinning; Phil had clapped his paws together in his own happiness, rushing out the door with a garbled rush of words.

"You're a _winter_ spirit, Jack!" He says. "How could the heat _not_ occur to you? - You were hot!"

"-Am still hot." Jack smirks.

"Winter spirit! Jack!" Aster's smile turned into a scowl in less time than it took for baby tooth to chirp out a question. "How could this not have crossed your mind? One bit? - You could have died out there in the heat!"

"Huh -?"

"The heat! - Oh, boy -" Aster goes back to pacing, hands behind his back. "- I've heard of winter spirits dying over being hot - why didn't I think of this?"

"Well," Jack starts, slowly sitting up, eyes closed due to a sudden rush of vertigo. "I didn't know of it, either, so..."

"I knew of it!" Bunny quickly says, going over to help keep Jack steady. "You didn't know? I thought it was obvious!"

Jack opens his eyes. "Obvious as in you didn't get it until I told you?"

"Don't get cheeky with me, snowflake." Aster grumbles, rubbing his paw over his ears.

Tooth's daughters were all quiet as this happened, barely a peep coming from them; Mostly from baby tooth asking how the sun could hurt him and stuff, and those questions were ignored from the most part. She must not have found them too serious of questions, though, choosing to accept being ignored to fly up to perch on Jack's shoulder.

Bunny mumbles some things to himself. It took Jack a minute or two to understand the pooka's worry; Bunny had heard of winter spirits dying from heat, right? Maybe he was a bit too worried for his own good.

"I feel better, though." Jack says, trying to calm the other down.

"I know, I know - just - look," Aster takes a seat beside Jack, ignoring the fairies who had to quickly fly out of his way. "winter spirits die in the heat-"

"-So?"

Aster rolls his eyes. "So you're never - ever - going out in the heat again alright? - And if you do, take someone with you."

Jack frowns. "No!" both him and Aster wince as his voice cracks from shouting. "No." he says quieter. "There's no way - I go everywhere, I've gone everywhere - Without anyone!"

The pooka rolls his eyes. "I'm not saying bring someone with you all the time, just if you're going somewhere warm!" He stands up swiftly. "This is final, got it? - You're a guardian now! We take care of ourselves!"

"-Like how you 'took care' of me when Easter was ruined?" Jack remarks angrily, crossing his arms.

The pooka's ears go flat against his head. "No - I wasn't in my right mind then! -We're going to help you whether you like it or not, twinky!"

A few seconds pass full of silence. Just the two of them glaring at one another.

Jack chokes on his anger, then, his frown breaking out into a smile, laughing.

"What?" Aster asks, an ear tilting up in question. "You finally going cuckoo?"

"...twinky." Jack giggles.

The pooka drops his earlier scowl, smirking. "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"Nope."

 **X**

"We're going to finish talking about this when the others come back."

"Awe, come on..."

 **X**

It wasn't hard for Jamie to sneak out of the house to meet up with Mason; all it took was an open window and the guardian's help. Also some extra sand to keep the dog quiet.

Mason was standing by the greenhouse, leaning against the fence, by the time they'd arrived. Cupcake only lived three houses down, so it was a short walk.

"So..." Jamie smiles. "You going to cut the lock?"

Mason shakes his head. "Already did; I looked around in there, but I didn't see anything. Are you sure you left something in there?"

Jamie frowns, disappointed that he didn't get to participate in cutting the lock off. "Yeah. It's...er...camouflaged?"

"Camo...yeah," Mason stands up, crossing his arms. "I'll believe that when pigs fly. What made you want in here so bad? The flowers? Strawberries?"

"I...uh..." Jamie says, quickly glancing at the guardians for help.

"Uhm! - Uhm!" Toothiana said, trying to come up with something for the child.

"Tell him you saw a monster in greenhouse! The dog-rat!" North grins.

"-There was a monster! Just the other day!" Jamie says, nervously.

Mason quirks up an eyebrow. "Wait..." his eyes widen, surprised. "The monsters I look for?"

"Yeah!" Jamie said, bouncing on the back of his heels. "It looked like some weird rat-looking dog! It was super freaky! Abby scared it away before I could look!"

"Did you see which way it went?" Mason, ignorant to the way Jamie fidgeted with nerves. "Maybe I can still find it!"

"Yeah! It went to the park!" Jamie answers quickly. "I bet there's more of them there!"

"You bet there is!" Mason nods. "Are you going home, now? - I really want to go after whatever you saw..."

Jamie frowns, knowing he was too young to stay out so late - heck, even sneaking out of the house before bedtime was something he shouldn't have done. "Will you take pictures?" he asks.

"We won't need pictures - I've got a trap!" Mason grins.

"Cool." Jamie smiles. "And yeah, I'm going home, now. Can you show me that trap tomorrow?"

Mason, already walking around the house, shrugs. "Depends what your mom says, James. See you!"

Jamie pouts, crossing his arms, watching for a moment as the man walked out of sight.

"That was...easy." Toothiana says.

"Yeah." Jamie replies.

North pushes open the greenhouse' door. "Boy is gone! Let us look at these plants, yes?"

Sandy, who had been silently watching the exchange between Jamie and Mason this whole time, nods, grinning. They'd been away for a while, now, and though Jamie had kept everyone pretty distracted from the situation, Jack was still sick, and they still needed to find out what had made the boy so.

Tooth, North and Jamie all began looking through plants as Sandy just scratched his head at the vegetation; he was quite sure none of them really knew which plant could do what when it came to allergies or poison, and so far he only recognized the strawberries.

Toothiana sighs. "I don't know which plant would be bad for spirits like him..."

Sandy shrugs when she chances a glance at him. He may be the oldest guardian, but he never did stop to learn about plants, only stopping to admire flowers every so often, should he feel like.

North huffs a chuckle. "I only know of few, and none of which are here."

"Doesn't bunny know?" Jamie asks. "He does seem to like plants, right?"

Sandy nods, waving his hands to get everyone's attention. He forms the sand above his head, trying to make his message clear: 'pick a leaf from every plant and let bunny look them over.'

Tooth nods. "We could go get bunny, but that would take longer..."

The little man sometimes wondered about his friends - his message was pretty clear, to him. He furrows his brows and crosses his arms, forming the message again, this time showing many, many leaves in his sand.

"Oh! We could pick a leaf from every plant!" Tooth grins. "Great idea, Sandy!"

"She has a lot of plants, though." Jamie says. "I could lend you guys a bag, if you want."

"Nonsense!" North laughs. He pulls something out of his coat pocket - one of his bags. "I always come prepared!"

"I'd be super freaked out by you carrying that around if I didn't know you were Santa." Jamie quips.

"This isn't Christmas, so it might be creepy." Tooth smiles.

"Why must you always pick?" North says, laughing.

"You make it easy."

"Naughty list! For all of you!"

 **X**

It was once again close to midnight once the three guardians had set for the north pole. Jamie had made them promise to tell Jack about how much he had helped (Tooth supposed it was because the boy wanted to look like a hero to Jack, which was kind of cute.)

Once they had entered the main living room, though, they had to do a double take.

Jack, sitting from his place on the couch, smirks. "Hi, guys." he says, voice hoarse.

There's a bit of snow spread along the couch, and he held a snowball, looking at if he were ready to toss it just before they had come in.

Tooth flies over to him. "What are you doing out of bed? You're sick!"

Jack shrugs. "I wanted to do stuff."

Aster then comes into the living room, bringing with him a bucket of snow. "Got some more." he says quickly, before dumping it on Jack.

"Hey!" Jack shouts, voice cracking horrendously; the snowball he'd made previous falling apart.

"Hey nothing!" Aster rolls his eyes, setting the now empty bucket to the floor and toeing it aside. "It's cold outside, so you better enjoy what I brought!"

"You ruined my snowball!"

"You can make more!"

"He was special! I named him Henry!"

"Make another Henry!"

"You can't just _make_ another Henry!"

"Stop! Just stop!" Tooth says, breaking the two out of their banter, drawing all eyes to her. "What is going on?"

Aster leans against the couch, sending the three guardians a smug look. "Just some good ol' fashion remedy-"

"-That took him _forever_ to think of." Jack interrupts, grinning.

"It wasn't forever." Aster says.

"It could've been."

"Boys." Tooth sighs. "What is going on?" she repeats.

Aster snorts. "I told you: good ol' fashion remedy."

"In which I get to sit in snow and eat ice cream." Jack chips in.

"We never agreed on the ice cream, frosty."

"Don't crush my dreams, thumper."

North grins, lifting up the bag of leaves he held as he spoke: "We have a cure!" he says, ignoring the amused smirk Aster shot his way at that.

"Oh, do you?" the pooka asked. "Thank the moon you got here in time; I'm not sure what I could have done!"

Jack quirks up an eyebrow at the older, receiving a mischievous glance from Aster in reply. He has to hide a grin behind his sleeve, pretending to wipe snow off his face. "Yeah, it got _really_ bad."he says, playing along.

"Oh, you poor thing." Tooth coos, brushing snow from his hair gently. "Jamie told us about how you went into a garden. We picked leaves off the plants so Bunny can look them over."

"I'll need a table and a bucket of marinara to test them." Aster says.

"What's marinara?" Tooth asks.

"A sauce; you'll probably find it in the kitchen. It's important for identifying plants due to it's magical properties." he answers without a beat.

"I have heard of this marinara." North nods. "Truly magical sauce, I have heard."

Jack has to bite his tongue to keep from laughing aloud at that. Sandy, amused, just shakes his head, rolling his eyes.

Aster snorts. "Sure. Just go get it. I'll use the coffee table."

North tosses the bag of leaves to Tooth, who fumbles around with it. The man heads toward where the kitchen may have been, leaving the others in search for the sauce.

Toothiana hands the bag to Bunny gently, as if she were holding a bag of priceless treasure. "How does the marinara work?"

"You dunk all the leaves in one at a time and then sniff 'em." Bunny smirks, placing the bag on the coffee table. "The really smelly ones have to be hung over hot water for a while."

Sandy takes a seat next to Jack, not minding the snow on the couch one bit. He elbows Jack lightly when the boy almost laughs - he'd taken to biting his sleeve to keep quiet. Sandy grins at the boy's struggle.

Unfortunately for Jack, Tooth looks his way suspiciously. "...Jack?"

The boy makes a strange noise -one that would have easily been mistaken for a balloon deflating - before full-out laughing, leaning over the arm of the couch, head in his hands.

"What? - Jack, are you okay?" Tooth asks.

Bunny loses his composure then, chuckling, before taking the bag and shoving it underneath the coffee table. "I was going so far, too, you twerp!"

"I can't - _ha_! - can't h-help it!" Jack gasps out.

Tooth shoots Aster a look. "What?"

Bunny grins. "Didn't need the leaves, sheila." he states.

"... _What_?" she repeats, flabbergasted.

"Jack's a winter spirit," Bunny continues. "What happens when snow gets hot?"

It takes Tooth a minute or two to get over the surprise and think about it. "It...melts." she answers.

She looks to Jack, who was still giggling over the trick Aster had pulled. His lap was covered in snow and so was most of the couch; the bucket Aster had brought in earlier to dump snow on the child was set to the side.

"It melts." she repeats. "I..." she trails off.

"Feel bad you didn't figure it out?" Aster says, crossing his arms, a smug grin on his face.

"You didn't figure it out -" Jack starts to point out, only to cough from his laughing fit.

"True." Aster nods. "And I felt like a downright dingbat for not even considering it."

"But what about the sauce? - What even is it, then?" Tooth asks.

The pooka shrugs. "You make food with it, I think. Don't care much for it, myself."

"But Jack's still sick?"

"I'm right here." Jack says, only to be ignored as Aster shakes his head.

"He's been getting better. Took him an hour or so."

"But we fought Pitch in a warm place just last week. Why didn't he become sick then?"

Aster shrugs. "We were only there for an hour or so. Jack was at James' home for longer, I'll bet."

Tooth nods, smoothing down some of the small feathers on her arms. She turns to Jack, giving him a pointed look, "This doesn't mean you're getting out of eating healthy, mister!" she says, scolding. "As of today you'll be getting the food you need! No sugary, tooth-rotting candy! - And no cookies!"

"-What is _wrong_ with you, woman?" North says, walking in, carrying a bowl with a few bottles of marinara in it. "No cookies is a crime!"

"You're not helping!" Tooth says. "Jack has eaten nothing but sweets! He needs nutrition! - And toothpaste, maybe..."

Jack huffs, smiling. "Lots of toothpaste." he agrees.

"I have your sauce!" North says, placing the bowl on the table. "Now we can find the cure!"

When silence met the man in reply, he turns to see everyone staring at him, amused. "What?" he asks.

"Mate...good work." Aster says.

Jack tries to hold it in, but ends up laughing at the confused man in the end.

 **X**

"So...about Jack ' _melting_ '..." Bunny starts. "I think he shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere warm without any of us, don't you?"

Jack huffs, childishly scooting down in the couch, arms folded. "I thought you forgot this..."

"I agree," Tooth says. "Also perhaps we can set a curfew?"

"Oh, heck no!" Jack says. "I'm a free spirit - I go wherever _whenever_!"

"Perfect idea, Tooth." North grins.

" _Ugh_."

Bunny chuckles. "Deal with it, mate. You're gonna be stuck with us for a long, _long_ time."

Jack smiles at that.

He liked that. He liked that a lot.

* * *

 ***There's two references to other fics in here but I can't find the fic names. Sorry.**

 ***Yeti language in this fic is just backwards.**

 ***putting this fic in crossover just because it references the books a lil**

 **If you can guess who Mason was you get a cookie.**

 **HINT: his sister can knit a sweater in like 3 seconds.**

 **sorry i switch from 'bunny' and 'aster' a lot guys its a bad habit of mine to include both - or all- names a character has, yknow? I hope it didn't slow you down.**

 **And Sorry that the guardians are** _ **really**_ **oblivious in here? everyone is ooc. its fanfiction. deal with it. ( no no im sorry I just - ooc.)**

 **No beta. All mistakes are my own.  
**

* * *

 **The ending** _ **sucks**_ **, but...**

 **O if you liked, X if you didn't!**


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